Saturday, September 18, 2010

NEW YORK TIMES- TECHNOLOGY 9.17.2010

A LOOPHOLE BIG ENOUGH FOR A COOKIE TO FIT THROUGH
By RIVA RICHMOND

OPENING LINE:
"If you rely on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer’s privacy settings to control cookies on your computer, you may want to rethink that strategy"

The opening line had me at hello. The writer presents a problem that most readers can relate to. Internet privacy is something that everyone deals with but few pay close attention to. I myself could not tell you what my privacy preferences even are. The writer presents the problem but does not give you the answer right away. This tricks you to keep reading to answer that question- 'could this be happening to me?'.

TOPIC CLARIFICATION:
"Cookies are used to store information about a user or computer’s Web use so sites can customize that user’s experience, including what ads they see."

The writer clarifies some foreign terms in the article that I myself, and readers in general may not know off hand. If the writer did not clarify the topic, I would have probably been confused and stopped reading there.

ILLUSTRATION:

"For illustrative purposes, imagine an interaction between browser and site that goes something like this: Browser: I don’t allow cookies that store personally identifiable information that could be used to contact me without permission. Site: I do have some cookies to place here, but none do that. Browser: That sounds fine. Come on in."

The writer illustrates the situation out to the reader in a way that one can better understand it. They set it up as a relationship between the Browser and the site, offering an interesting perspective.




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